Planet Swans ArchivesAfter so much hope brought by the early qualifying campaign maybe it was inevitable that it was to come down to another defeat in front of what was a record crowd for a Welsh home football international. More than 73,000 packed the Millennium Stadium with the optimism that this was to be the Welsh time.
Now the management have to pick these players up and work towards the World Cup in 2006 which for many could be their last shot at football on the bigger stage. Sad it may be but it is probably true.
Eighteen months ago I am sure we looked at this group and wondered if we could get through to this stage and I am convinced that most Welsh fans would have taken a play off defeat at that stage. However after starting with a win in Finland and then the famous victory over Italy in Cardiff it appeared that we could do so much more. Back to back wins over Azerbaijan only fuelled that belief as Wales topped the group with 12 points from a possible 12 – and remember that was at the start of this year. A defeat in Serbia followed and then a hammering in Milan before we dropped 5 points in the last two games in Cardiff. At this point we were being exposed by injuries and being forced to picking back up players who weren’t a patch on those we were missing – Simon Davies and Craig Bellamy spring to mind as huge losses.
A solid display in Russia re-ignited the hope that we could get there but tonight in Cardiff we were, quite simply, beaten by a better team. A team that looked more organised and dangerous and a team that had composure on the ball – something which we sadly lacked.
I believe we made a tactical error in starting with the same team that had done us so proud in Moscow last weekend. The formation worked for an away leg where we were happy with the score but surely at home we needed to look at two people up front as one was always going to get short change. Jason Koumas running off Hartson is never as effective as Bellamy and surely the argument was strong and loud for Earnshaw – a man on fire goals wise – to make the start. Hartson was very poor tonight – to me he didn’t look fit. Too often he was penalised for pushing the Russian defenders in his attempts to get the ball and had we not needed a goal second half then I would have said his replacement would have been almost inevitable.
At the back we saw the composure of Danny Gabbidon – a real star in the making and someone who could be the lynchpin of the Welsh defence for years to come. Without a doubt in my mind he was the Welsh player who stood out on the night and had the ball broken more kindly in the first half then maybe he would have marked his game with an all important equaliser.
We had chances – the best falling to Hartson, Giggs and Speed but it was not to be and on the 180 minutes as a whole I think the better side booked their place next summer. Qualification was not lost here as far as I am concerned it was lost with the away fixture in Serbia. It didn’t help that we had to move the game from it’s original date – a time when Wales were firing on all cylinders and I think we were too negative in looking for a point when a win then would have almost sealed qualification. We dropped points in Cardiff against Finland and Serbia – we could have won those and I think we have been exposed by the fact that we are playing one man up front. This is sussed quite easily now and we pay the price for it.
Mark Hughes has taken this side a long way in two years but we have more work to do. This has been a huge improvement of the qualifying campaigns of the past and we should take heart from that. At the moment we haven’t got the strength in depth that we need and the likes of Gabbidon, Earnshaw and Koumas need to be playing in the Premiership against the better players week on week (with all due respect to their clubs at the moment) To call on Andy Johnson as a replacement for Simon Davies makes you realise the problems that we have in depth and this is why we are not looking up flight details for Portugal tonight in my opinion.
We can take great heart from this campaign despite the fact it finished in such a sad way. Sure we can feel that we maybe threw away our chance with the last six results in the campaign but at the end of it we fare exceeded the expectations when the draw was made.
I’m sure we can learn from this and hopefully we will come out the better side – we need to – it will surely be a travesty if the bigger stages never see the likes of Gary Speed or Ryan Giggs performing on them.
We’re still Welsh and will be until we die – we’ve said it before – there’s always another chance.
CYMRU AM BYTH!
